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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187712">Never Too Old (Or Young)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElisaPhoenix/pseuds/ElisaPhoenix'>ElisaPhoenix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Supreme Family Chaos [124]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cloak of Levitation (Marvel), Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, Other, Pranks and Practical Jokes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:47:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,321</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187712</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElisaPhoenix/pseuds/ElisaPhoenix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A usual winter day in the Stark-Strange household.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tony Stark/Stephen Strange</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Supreme Family Chaos [124]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1364899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>108</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Never Too Old (Or Young)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a rare morning that Tony got up before Stephen or the girls, so he took the opportunity to get up and go downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee. He may have been awake, but he wasn't quite aware, which was something the coffee would help with. Tony yawns and pours the coffee into a mug when it finishes brewing and he walks over to one of the windows to blearily look out as he drinks his...what did Harley call it? His anti-murder juice.</p><p>Each sip he took woke him little by little until he noticed a white smudge on the window in front of him. <em>What the hell?</em> Tony tries to rub it away with his finger, and that's when he realizes that the smudge was on the outside. It looked nothing like bird poop, in fact, it was a solid white. It had a specific curve to it…</p><p>The engineer takes a step back when he notices another white smudge out of the corner of his eye, and he sighs heavily when he sees the smudges <em>all over the windows</em>. They were everywhere. It took a couple more thoughtful sips of his morning coffee for things to finally click and Tony realized they were <em>stickers</em>.</p><p>"These damn kids," Tony huffs as he walks into the living room.</p><p>The likely suspects were Peter and Diana. He considered Harley for a brief moment, but not only would it be hard to place so many stickers on the outside of the tower windows in the Rescue suit...but he was also passed out on the couch. Textbooks were all over the coffee table, the floor, and even a couple were on the teen himself which was a dead giveaway that he had been studying all night. Why he was in the living room instead of up in his room was beyond Tony, but he shrugged it off before carefully taking off the boy's glasses and setting them aside.</p><p>Stephen was the one to suspect Harley's far-sightedness a couple of years ago, and the boy had been so relieved that there wasn't something seriously wrong with him. The sorcerer had kept a close eye on Harley after almost a week of complaining of headaches, and the boy would squint while doing homework or reading, pull the book farther away, and even rub his eyes. </p><p>Maybe in the hopes of fixing his vision.</p><p>So Stephen took him to a specialist since he and Bruce didn't exactly specialize in optometry. The doctor confirmed Stephen's suspicion and they got Harley some prescription glasses which clearly made a difference when he started wearing them. No more furrowing brows, no more headaches, and he got his homework done faster since he wasn't using most of the time to try and see it in the first place.</p><p>Tony had a suspicion that William liked them too.</p><p>Just as Tony was about to throw a blanket on his oldest son, Levi beat him to it and draped itself across the teen. "Why didn't you do that before?"<br/>"It can only do so much without me." Stephen says as he descends the stairs holding Lucy and with Athena trailing behind him.<br/>"One of our kids decorated the windows." Tony tells him as he puts his coffee down on a book free surface to take their youngest. "And the tree is miraculously still standing."<br/>"That's because Tibbs is in Peter's room. We have a whole day of prying him away from it ahead of us." Stephen rolls his eyes and heads into the kitchen to make himself some tea and a bottle for Lucy.</p><p>That was made and handed to Tony before breakfast was started. Thomas and William join a few minutes later and the younger of the twins joins Stephen in the kitchen to help as Thomas retreats into the living room. It turned into a typical morning after that. The rest of the kids woke up, some of the Avengers came up to join the family for breakfast, and sometime in the middle of that chaos, Harley woke up and cleaned up his study mess. Breakfast was eaten and Harley and William made plans to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.</p><p>It definitely wasn't a date.</p><p>Peter and Cassie had their own plans and Peter was currently showering while his girlfriend went back downstairs and got ready. It was relatively calm then...at least as calm as it could be with as many people as there were. Stephen was reading on the couch with Athena next to him with her head in his lap, and he periodically pet her head as he read. Tony had disappeared down to the lab with Lucy to undoubtedly turn her into a grease monkey, and Valerie was coloring on the floor with Diana. Thomas...was somewhere not dying or getting into trouble so that was enough for them. Harley disappeared as well which was weird since William was still in the living room with the girls.</p><p>Stephen nonchalantly turned a page in his book when Peter <em>screeched</em>. The wolf lifted her head at the same time Stephen, Valerie, Diana, and William looked up toward the bedrooms, and Peter soon came out of his room with only a towel around his waist with blue splotches all over his skin.</p><p>"HARLEY!" Peter shouts and Stephen sighs.</p><p>A prank. Specifically the one where a showerhead was filled with dissolvable dye capsules or Kool-aid powder. Harley was nowhere to be seen and to Stephen's surprise, William burst into hysterical laughter. Peter gave the younger teen a look that was a mix between annoyance, bewilderment, and what looked like glee. Probably because William was actually laughing about something.</p><p>"I-I'm sorry!" William sputters through bouts of laughter.<br/>Peter huffs. "Mom, have you seen Harley?"<br/>"Nope." Stephen says as he flips a page in his book and Athena lays her head back down.<br/>Peter looks at William. "Tell your boyfriend it's <em>on</em>!" He disappears back into his room to scrub the blotches off his skin, leaving William to sputter.</p><p>Stephen chuckles and returns part of his attention to his book when William ends up blushing bright red.</p><p>"You should kiss him." Diana finally says and William's eyes widen.<br/>"Wh-what?!"<br/>"You should kiss Harley. You both like each other." She repeats. "You're worse than Uncle Quill and Uncle Scott."<br/>"He doesn't-"<br/>"He does." Stephen says and turns another page.<br/>"Hey, Will! Come on!" Harley says from the elevator.</p><p>William turns a deeper shade of red as he gets up to join Harley, and Stephen hears the older one ask him if he's okay as the elevator doors close. Maybe his and Diana's little confession would be just the push William and Harley needed but then again…</p><p>"Boys are stupid." <br/>"<em>Diana</em>." Stephen scolds lightly.<br/>"They are." She mumbles.<br/>"Who's responsible for the stickers?" The sorcerer asks. <br/>"Petey. He crawled on the windows outside and put them on."<br/>"I suppose you supplied them?"<br/>"Nuh-uh. Valerie."</p><p>Stephen looks back up from his book and raises an eyebrow at Valerie who definitely looks a little guilty. She pouts up at him with her big blue eyes, and he sighs in defeat. One would think that with seven kids he would be immune to the puppy eyes but he fell for them every time. He was pretty sure the kids knew it too.</p><p>No. He was <em>positive</em>.</p><p>"Bye Mom! Be back later!" Peter calls out as he races down the stairs and through the door to the stairwell.<br/>"Have fun." Stephen manages to say before the door shuts.<br/>"Mama, look." Valerie holds up the paper she was coloring on and reveals endless scribbles that covered the whole of it.<br/>"It's very beautiful. Do you want to hang it up?" He smiles when her eyes widen in excitement and she nods.</p><p>The two year old gets up and walks over to the cloak floating nearby and holds it up to Levi. The cloak happily takes it, and with a cartoonish flourish that briefly made Stephen feel like he <em>was</em> in one, Levi tacks it to the wall with the other drawings. When it claps the folds of its collar together, Stephen knew they were in far too deep. Even his cloak was domesticated.</p><p>"My children have turned an ancient relic into a nanny." Stephen bemoans.<br/>"Daddy said you started it." Diana says and Stephen huffs.<br/>"It was <em>one time</em> and that was when Peter was turned into a baby. The cloak was the only one that could reach Peter when he was climbing the walls and the ceiling." Stephen closes his book. "Speaking of your daddy, since he smuggled your sister into the lab, why don't we go to the store?"<br/>"Can I come?" Thomas suddenly says from next to him.<br/>"Get your coat."</p><p>In the meantime, Stephen takes the girls upstairs to get them dressed and once they all have their coats on, he opens a portal to the store. Thomas of course returned while the girls were getting ready, and went through the portal after picking up Diana. Stephen huffs fondly when Diana giggles loudly and picks up Valerie to follow them. It took a couple of years, but the twins were finally comfortable asking for things but it was usually still necessities. It was still kind of rare for them to ask for things they <em>wanted</em>.</p><p>"'tena?" Valerie asks and waves at the wolf behind Stephen. "'Tena, here!"</p><p>Athena comes through the portal and Stephen rolls his eyes as he waves his hand to get her service vest on. It would at least lessen the looks, which only left the 'is that a wolf' whispers. Yes. Yes she is.</p><p>"If you weren't so shy of strangers, I'd say you would grow up to be a politician or a world leader."<br/>"Nah, Val?" Thomas cackles. "She's too nice."<br/>"Also a good point. Push the cart please?" </p><p>Thomas nods and puts Diana down so he can grab a cart and they walk through the aisles of Target. Diana was happy to 'ooh' and 'aah' at every piece of clothing she saw and Valerie soon ended up in the seat of the cart when Stephen's hands began to tremble a little too much. He then had to attempt to redirect Diana's attention away from the clothes because he was pretty sure she had twenty versions of the sundress she was looking at. Cassie was the one that took her shopping for clothes anyway. It was their thing.</p><p>"Aww…" Diana pouts but goes without a fuss to the bedding aisle.<br/>"Why don't you help me pick out some sheets for your sister?"<br/>"There's one with stars on it." Thomas points out and grabs the set to hand to the seven year old.<br/>Diana rolls the set around in her hands with a scrutinizing gaze and then shakes her head. "No. She needs animals."</p><p>She looks up at the selection of bedding and finally points up at a set with little brown rabbits. Thomas grabs it for her and after she scrutinizes it like the one before, she smiles and nods and holds it up for Valerie to see. </p><p>"Do you like it Valerie?" She asks and the two year old grabs it and scrunches her brows at it before smiling.<br/>"Bunny!"<br/>Stephen chuckles. "I'll take that as a yes." His phone then rings and he takes it out of his pocket to answer it. "Yes love?"<br/>"Heyyyyy Honey…" Tony starts and the sorcerer instantly narrows his brows in suspicion even though his husband can't see.<br/>"What did you do Tony?"<br/>"What? Nothing! Everything's fine! FRIDAY just told me you were at the store and thought I'd tell you that we're low on diaper wipes." Tony answers casually.<br/>"Lucy is covered in grease again isn't she?" Stephen asks flatly.<br/>"It suits her."<br/>"She is two weeks old! Give her a bath. A <em>proper one</em>."<br/>"Yes Duchess." The mechanic chuckles. "We do need more wipes though."<br/>"Noted."</p><p>Stephen hangs up and rolls his eyes as he directs the kids to the baby section. Wordlessly, he grabs at least three packs of wipes before grabbing a fourth just in case. Tony had a habit of wiping down Lucy with diaper wipes whenever she was down in the lab with him and she got dirty, but Stephen didn't even know how he managed that. Her motor skills were still nearly non-existent and he wondered if maybe his husband used her as a rag.</p><p>He wouldn't put it past Tony. He got tunnel vision whenever he got invested in a project. Stephen couldn't complain though. Lucy loved being in the lab with her father and Tibbs, and whoever else happened to be in there with them. Granted, she slept through most of the chaos, and when she didn't, she was very helpful to Tony.</p><p>Baby noises were apparently helpful.</p><p>"We better hurry and finish up so we can go save your sister." Stephen says.<br/>"It might be too late." Thomas jokes.</p><p>They finish their shopping and Stephen opens a portal back to the penthouse where they find Tony giving Lucy her bath. Before Stephen can even open his mouth, he sees the baby tub in the sink and makes a strangled noise when he finds the water in it nearly pitch black.</p><p>"I'm afraid to ask...but <em>what happened</em>?" He asks through clenched teeth.<br/>Tony looks up and actually looks a little sheepish. "Domino effect I think? Something backfired, Tibbs was startled...and I think he knocked over a box of dust."<br/>"I wouldn't be surprised. You barely clean the lab." Stephen sighs. "I hope you found a baby underneath all that filth."<br/>"I did. She's very cute too. Can we keep her?" Tony holds up their naked baby daughter and grins.</p><p>Stephen can't help but chuckle.</p><p>"You get to change the diapers."<br/>"Always stuck with the dirty work." Tony grumbles.</p>
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